A Health Promotion Framework for Women with Precarious Immigration Status in Canada

Women with precarious immigration status are at risk for poor health outcomes and receive scant attention on their health promotion needs. This paper explores the health consequences of women living without legal immigration status in Toronto, Canada. Informed by a literature review and supplemented through narrative findings of a qualitative study, consisting of semi-structured interviews with six front-line health professionals and policy makers, the “Health Promotion Framework for Women with Precarious Immigration Status” is proposed. Findings point toward individual, intermediate, and systems levels of influences and experiences. The individual level (health consequences) refers to physical, mental, and social dimensions of women’s health. The intermediate level (women’s social context) entails her experiences of discrimination and violence, uncertainty and fear, employment, and resilience and support systems. Within the systems level lie broader systemic, social, and structural factors, such as displacement, socio-economic, and health systems. Women with precarious immigration status face significant health disparities. They have limited legal rights and are subject to multiple threats to their well-being. The proposed conceptual framework can inform research, policy, and practice in urban settings which receive non-status migrant women, and contribute to efforts directed at reducing health disparities for women with precarious status.